Crybaby Mods Question

[Ofek Deitch]

I would like to mod my crybaby soon, and I want to know if there are some guides about how to do that.
The things I want to add are:
-Boost\Volume knob
-A LED, which I heard requires the bypass mod with the 3PDT switch.
-and a tone\depth knob.

My crybaby is a GCB-95 Rev I.

Ohh, and another thing, when I connect my crybaby, with no battery in it, I still get sound in OFF mode.
Doesn't that means that it's true bypass??  

Here are some pics of me crybaby:










Well thanks in advance for any help!
Ofek Deitch  

[petemoore]

-Boost\Volume knob
  NPN something or nuther, the Power Supply is already here, splice the in/out board signal wires 'inside' the switch to boost the CB sound only, or 'outside' the switching for constant boost.
-A LED, which I heard requires the bypass mod with the 3PDT switch.
  If you have a bypass DPDT, consider looking at the Millenium Bypass articles at GEO, perhaps add that to the boost board, or transfer the DPDT wiring to 2 of the 3 'columns' of a 3PDT, the remaining third colulmn [1 pole and two throws] can be assigned [to switch the indicator circuit] a pole/throw for on/off.
-and a tone\depth knob.
  This would be...what it isn't yet, 'tone' is wide open for interpretation, applying circuits may vye for the position, perhaps a SWTC or even an AMZ or FAQ treble control mod [pot 'n cap to Gnd.] would be enough, if alternate bass response is needed perhaps at the CB input cap wire, another input cap in series with the input cap to reduce the uf value there.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

The only "Tone" mods that I am aware of is by-way-of adjusting the in/out caps
and there are some mods with the Sweep cap to change the tone too 

[Ofek Deitch]

By Depth I mean that when you sweep your foot on the pedal, the sensitivity of the effect\tone will be controlled by a pot.
What I want is basically a sort of tone control, but that controls the depth of the effect.

And another thing -
I didn't really understand your answers and explanations (I'm a noob as you can see.. ) so if you could please repeat them in a more simple way and explain them with more details that you think are to obvious so you don't even mention them..


Thanks again!!
Ofek Deitch.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

And another thing -
I didn't really understand your answers and explanations (I'm a noob as you can see.. ) so if you could please repeat them in a more simple way and explain them with more details that you think are to obvious so you don't even mention them..

Perhaps you should read Geofx "Technology of a Wah."
That will give you the knowledge to be DANGEROUS!! 

http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/wahpedl/wahped.htm

[Ofek Deitch]

I found this tutorial on the Bypass mod of the crybaby:
http://stinkfoot.se/archives/546

My question is - have anyone tried this before? If yes - was it good? should I follow its instructions?
Thanks

[Seven64]

remove the resistor from the emitter of Q1 (R9) and replace it with a 1k pot wired as a variable resistor.  this will be your volume knob.

[Ofek Deitch]

I'm not exactly sure how to wire the 1k pot.. which lug of the pot goes where?

Thanks again!

[Seven64]

wire lug 1 to one of the resistor spots, lugs 2 and 3 to eachother and the other resistor spot.  you may have to switch which resistor hole you wired lug 1 or 2 & 3 to if the taper is backwards.  obviously you remove the resistor.

[Rick899]

I have modified several of those. The ones I liked the best involved changing the inductor to red and yellow fasels. I did one pedal with a red and one with a yellow fasel. They are supposed to have, and do have different sounds. The other parts of the mod involved changing  a resistor and adding a pot to one end of the resistor. The final part of the mod involves making the pedal  true bypass by changing  the switch and cutting one of the traces (true bypass can also I think be done by removing the resistors and caps of a certain section of the board. The one in the pic was done this way).  These mods really transform the pedal. They both have unique rich tones. I really like it with a fuzz face with the fuzz knob turned down.  I found all of this info online.

[Ofek Deitch]

Okay, Thanks everybody!
I think I'll start it slow, and for now do only the bypass mod, and then maybe I'll add an LED to the 3PDT switch.

Thanks again!
Ofek Deitch 

[Seven64]

you are going to wire the pcb the same for a bypass mod no matter the switch used.  i would suggest a 3pdt for the LED.  there are casting holes near the switch hole that fit a 3mm LED perfectly.



here is my wah, true bypass with led, volume knob, Q knob, and fatwah switch amongst a few other changes (sweet cap, mids mod)

all except the true bypass mod can be found here:

http://www.diyguitarist.com/

goto guitar effects>wah page 1

i used youtube for the true bypass mod.

[Ofek Deitch]

**Seven64:

What pot did you use instead of the resistor next to the emitter of Q1?
Thanks

[joegagan]

**Seven64:

What pot did you use instead of the resistor next to the emitter of Q1?

pardon me for stepping in, this is one of the very common mods ( keeley, teese, wilson etc). usually a 1k pot or trimmer in place of the resistor from emitter Q1 to ground. some people call it a bass control because it usually adds low end, but it also just increases the gain of the wah generally.

if you play with this, you can alter the 68k input resistor and the 1.5k R off of Q1 base to inductor to voice the wah, without doing anything else.

keep in mind that a wah is a delicate balance of the two transistors, the pot is sweeping at the mix of the two, so altering the gain of one or the other can drastically alter the action of the sweep. it is very easy to get into trouble - making the wah sound bad or lifeless if this is not adhered to.

make your changes slowly ( you already mentioned you would do it this way). keep track as you go.

in a recent experiment on a gcb65 ( the same basic board you are working with here), i set up a pseudo-scientific test procedure.
fuji cam on a tripod. i set my amp to a loud setting. all tests were done with the same guitar at same settings playing as close to the same chords and riffs each time. i did a baseline recording of the stock wah, then made one simple change at a time , recording each change. it took about 5 hours, and there were about 12 recordings to sift through at the end of the day. i took notes and made only one component change per video so that each change could be individually asessed.

the cool thing about the vids is you can open a  bunch of windows an toggle back and forth to quickly AB two things you want to compare.

it also helped that i had a game plan, a specific thing i was going for in this experiment. this allowed me to focus in on exact sounds and get the changes made quickly.

[Seven64]

it was a 1k linear pot.

i also have the resistor that helps voice the inductor wired to a pot, so it is fairly simple to get the wah dialed in to sounding nice.  i would have just used my meter to get the resistance values from the pots, but when you switch the setup that the wah is played with you need to retune, so this makes it more adaptable.

[Ofek Deitch]

OK, so I've done a few mods on my crybaby - did the  True Bypass mod,  I changed a few resistor values and also switched the 0.01uF cap with a 0.022uF.
The problem is when the heel is all the way down, I barely get any bassy sound or even any sound at all.

This is what I've done:




thanks for any help!

[Seven64]

i have that on my new wah i just picked up.  im pretty sure you just have to find the new sweet spot on the wah pot and adjust the gear accordingly.   unscrew the phillips screw that holds the trendle gear tension, and find where the top and bottom of the pot are, and adjust accordingly.

im not to good at explaining this early in the AM.

[petemoore]

  Too bassy...maybe I'm pointing out the obvious...there's the rack/pinion gear indexing adjustment, loosen the screw that holds the plastic loop against the rack to hold the cogs against the pots gear, count 1 or 2 cogs, mate the cogs again and hold the loop against the rack/tighten the loop screw again.
   There are a million mods, Joe has done lots of work and research, as have others...all very good info...I overmodded a wah and it was the long way around to get it back to near stock circuit...IIRC I did change 1 or 2 values on that one.
  The CB I'm using now has Red Fasel, is otherwise stock -the pot...works great.

[joegagan]

when you swapped the  .01 cap for a .022, you changed the center frequency of the sweep by a huge amount. ( assuming this was the sweep cap , the cap between the inductor and emitter of Q3 ( Q2 in a non buffer wah ).

go back to the .01 and do the other changes. when you make changes to the sweep cap, go in small increments, ie; .012, .008 etc. even these small change the center sweep freq considerably.

[Ofek Deitch]

Hi everybody!

Just got the B1K pot and the B100K pot for the volume and the tone\Q knob.

I took out the 330R resistor and replaced it with the 1k pot.
The problem is that below the value of 330R the sound of the wah begins to distort and just sounds awful. Using the pot I can just lower the volume of the effect, but because that it distorts under 330R it can't rise the volume to a higher volume than the maximum volume (which isn't very loud, and pretty close to the clean dry sound), that I have already reached without the pot, by just using the 330R resistor.

What I want, is basically a pot that will go from about zero volume, to a very high volume (sort of like volume knobs on fuzz pedals).
I thought to make the wah very loud (using the NPN boost, for example, and connect it right after the output of the wah, and place it inside the enclosure of the wah) and then make a master volume pot, by connecting the output of the boost into pin 1, pin 2 will be connected to the output that goes to the new 3PDT switch I have just installed earlier, and pin 3 will be connected to Ground.

My question is will my idea work? Won't it use a lot of power?(although I am not using batteries...) AND how can I replace the 5K pot in the NPN Boost with a resistor, that its value is the highest value of the pot that the sound does not distort?

Also, what kind of pot will I have to use in order to create a good master volume? Lin\Log, and what value?
Will the B100K pot I got do the job?


Thanks a lot everybody!!
Ofek Deitch